If you would, go back to the
book of John, and we'll go to chapter 17 this evening. And our subject is the I haves
of our intercessor. There are a bunch of times in
this passage of scripture that the Lord Jesus uses this expression,
I have. And He is our intercessor. Brother,
I asked brother Joe to read Isaiah chapter 53 because the last words
of that, he make it intercession for the transgressors. And that's
just what this is all about. It's our Lord's high priestly
prayer. It is his intercessory prayer
and it is the lengthiest of all of his prayers recorded in the
scriptures. You know, when we read of our
Lord in the garden, we don't read much of His prayers. They
were very brief. Even when our Lord hung upon
the cross and He pronounced words of forgiveness to the Father,
He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Just
very brief, brief portions of His prayer. But in this passage
of Scripture, John chapter 17, here is a Well, shall we call
it full length of his prayer. Here's the entirety of his prayer. And he didn't go out into the
garden and pray it by himself. This is not a secretive prayer.
This is a prayer in which his 11 apostles are listening to
the Savior open up his heart to the Father. And John is led
by the Spirit of God to record this. And so this is written
for our admonition. This is written for our good.
This is written for our instruction as we read about the Savior who
offers to God, to the Father. This intercessory prayer, He
prays about the glory of God. He prays about His own glory. He asked the Father for these
eleven men who are His own, that He would bless them, that He
would lead them, that He would teach them, and then He prays
about all of His people. And so as we read this John chapter
17, and I would certainly advise you to go home again this evening
and read it, remember this, if you're a believer, if you're
one of God's people, If the Lord Jesus, His blood and His righteousness,
if He's all of your hope, if He's all of your confidence,
as you read this, remember, this is the Savior praying for you. Now, I want you to pray for me,
and I do pray for you. But brethren and sisters, there's
nothing equal to our Savior representing us before God, and
offering to the Heavenly Father His priestly prayer for us. This is the real language of
prayer. You want to read a real prayer?
Here it is. Here it is. This is really true
prayer. This is a perfect prayer. There's no selfishness in it.
There's no sin in it. Well, this is a prayer that comes
forth from the very heart of the Son of God, of our Savior.
Now, of our best prayers, of our best prayers, we know they're
devoid of sin. And I know we're believers. I
know that God has given us life. And He's given us light. But
we have within us that old depravity with which we were born. And
it defiles everything we do. The good that we would do, we
don't do. And that which we don't want
to do, the bad that we don't want to do, that's what we do.
And the Scripture states so convincingly that within us dwelleth no good
thing. In the flesh, in your flesh,
in my flesh, there doesn't dwell any good thing. Therefore, when
we draw nigh to God, we must draw nigh to God through Christ
Jesus. Now of our Savior, it says here
in John chapter 17 and verse 1, He lifted up His eyes to heaven. Now, we can certainly lift up
our eyes to heaven in praying to the Lord, but typically and
generally, we know bodily exercise profits little. But we typically
bow our heads indicating we're not worthy to look upon such
a holy one. But our Lord Jesus, He lifts
up His eyes to heaven and He looks right in the face of God. Because He is the sinless One. He is the perfect One. He is
the One who is equal with the Father. But we bow our heads
because we understand we have no worthiness in ourselves. Our worthiness is the Savior. Our worthiness is to be found
only in the Lord, who is our righteousness. No wonder, therefore,
in Hebrews chapter 13, we read, by Him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice, the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is, the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to Him. Everything we seek to do for
the Lord has got to go through Christ Jesus. Now if we were
sinless, if we were perfect, if there was something about
us that was without error, without defilement, we wouldn't need
an intercessor. But listen folks, the most spiritual
person in this room, Those who are advancing in the
Kingdom of God. Listen, there is enough defilement
within us, even now, to put us in hell forever, were it not
for the fact that Christ Jesus is our Savior. We've never prayed
a perfect prayer. We've never done a good work.
You say, but the Scripture talks about good works. He makes them
good. He is our perfection. He is the
one who washes our prayers, our repentance, our faith, our worship. He washes them in His blood. He robes them, He clothes them
in His righteousness, and then He presents it to the Father
in the sweet-smelling savor of His sacrifice, and the Father
receives us for Christ's sake. John says in 1 John 2, My little
children, these things write I unto you that you sin not.
Don't sin. Do you want to sin? No, you don't want to sin. I
don't want to sin. But the fact of the matter is,
we do. And more than that, we are. That's
what we are. It's part and parcel of us. And
so he says, if any man sin, we have an advocate. Isn't that
wonderful? We have an advocate. Well, where
is he? With the Father. He represents
us to the Father. Who is he? He's Jesus Christ,
the righteous. And therefore, he is qualified
to represent us and to present us and to present our worship
to the Father. Now one of the reasons we pray
is because we seek to have applied to the heart the reality of forgiveness,
the sweetness of forgiveness. Isn't forgiveness a sweet thing?
And though it isn't our confession that earns or merits the forgiveness,
It is our confession that the Spirit of God uses to make the
reality of forgiveness a very precious thing to our souls.
It isn't your confession or my confession that puts sin away.
Our confessions are not that powerful. It took the blood In
the same passage of Scripture, 1 John 1, verse 7, it's the blood
of Christ Jesus, God's Son, that's what cleanses us from all sin. But the Scripture says this,
if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God is faithful
to His oath. God is faithful to His covenant.
God is faithful since His Son has paid our redemption price. He's faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins. But in John chapter 17, our Lord, He prayed though He
never sinned. We pray because we have sinned
and because we're sinners. We pray because we're in need
of mercy. We're in need of grace. We're
in need of help. We're in need of Christ Jesus.
We're in need of God. We pray and you're just like
me. You blush with shame before the
throne of God. We shed tears of remorse. And we long for that day when
we shall be with Christ Jesus, and we won't have any more sin. But in this prayer, the prayer
of our all-glorious Savior, it is founded upon His perfect obedience. His perfect obedience in doing
the Father's will in all things. And unlike us, He was not thin, nor was He ever
in any way contaminated by sin. He bore our sins. The Scripture
says He was made sin. Iniquities were made to meet
upon Him, and yet His perfections, His glory, His righteousness
as God and man were never affected. Never contaminated. I think Pilate speaks for all
of those who observed him during his life and Pilate said, I find
no fault in this man. But more than that, the father
said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And listen, the only way God
can be well pleased with you and me is through Christ. Through Him. And when Christ died, it's recorded,
He hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweet-smelling savor. You know, we've studied chapters
14, 15, and 16 of John. And I think it's obvious to the
careful reader that four great subjects occupied the mind and
the heart of the Savior. First of all, his impending death. That's why he kept on saying,
I go away. I go, and the disciples said,
we don't know where you're going, we don't know the way. I go away,
he said, I'm going to the Father. And of course, he was going to
the Father, he was going to the throne by way of the cross, by
way of Calvary. He said in John 16, if I go not
away, the Comforter's not gonna come. The Spirit of God's not
going to come. If our Lord Jesus doesn't die,
there's no Gospel for the Spirit of God to reveal. There's no
Savior for the Spirit of God to make known if He doesn't go
away and die. There's no joy to give to the
heart if the Savior doesn't lay down His life in the stead of
His people. So He said, I must go away. If
I don't go away, the Comforter won't come. His impending death. Secondly, this is another favorite
topic of the Savior to His disciples. And remember He's speaking to
His disciples in John 14, 15, and 16. He speaks of the Father. In the Gospel of John, there's
a very special revelation. of that dear, precious, and tender
relationship between God the Son and God the Father. And the Savior often uses this
endearing name of Father. When you have an opportunity
to read these chapters, in chapter 14, he refers to the Father.
23 times. Chapter 15, he refers to the
father a number of 10 times. Chapter 16, 12 times. And here in chapter 17, six times. Six times. Notice in verse 11
here of John 17, where he prays for the father to keep, preserve
his people through his own name, for the sake of his name. And
when he does, this is how he refers to the Father. Look at
verse 11. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
whom thou has given me that they may be one even as we are. There is but one who deserves
the title of Holy Father. And that's our God. And this
is the way our Savior, this is how He approaches Him. This is
how He speaks of Him. And then in the 25th verse, when
He speaks of knowing the Father, our Redeemer, He addresses Him,
He calls Him by that name by which He has ever known He says
in verse 25, O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee,
but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent
me. And so he speaks of his impending
death. He speaks of the Father. Thirdly,
here's a major subject matter of these chapters. He speaks of the ministry of
the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the Holy Spirit.
He says when He does come, He's going to reprove the world. He's going to convict. He's going
to convince of sin and righteousness and judgment. And he says concerning
the Spirit, He's not going to speak of Himself. He'll speak
of me. He'll magnify me. He'll glorify
me. And that's a major subject in
these last few chapters where our Lord instructs His people. And then, here's the fourth thing.
He speaks of His people. He speaks of His people. Notice
in this lengthy prayer, how often he refers to the Father, or to
those the Father gave him, and what would be done for those
people. And keep in mind, he's not only speaking to these 11,
or about these 11 disciples. According to verse number 20,
he's praying for all who will believe through their words.
And we believe, we believe. Do you believe the gospel? I
believe the gospel. Through their Word. The Word
that they wrote by the inspiration of the Spirit of God. The Word
that the Spirit of God used in our regeneration. He begat us
with the Word of truth. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And our Lord Jesus, He talks
about that, We will be converted through
their word. He talks about his people. He's
praying for all of his people. These were people who were given
to him in covenant grace. Look at verse two. As thou has
given him power, authority over all flesh. Who does he have authority
over? Everybody. Everybody. that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. These were given to him
in covenant grace, these people. And he says this in verses 11
and 12, these were preserved people. Look at verse 11. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee. In other words,
I come to thee on their behalf. He says, Holy Father, keep through
thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may
be one as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept. And none of them is lost but
the son of perdition, the son of ruin. the son of destruction,
that the scripture might be fulfilled. These people were given him in
covenant grace. These are preserved people. Watch
this in verse 14. These are an instructed people.
I have given them thy word. And the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."
These are an instructed people. As it says back in John chapter
6, they'll all be taught of God. No exceptions. All of those given
to Christ Jesus in covenant love, all of those in whose stead the
Savior suffered, bled and died, they'll all be instructed by
God as to the way of salvation. The way grace comes to us will
all be instructed in the fact that salvation is of the Lord. And then he says in verse 17
through 19, these are a sanctified people. What does that mean?
People who are set apart. Verse 17, he says, sanctify them
through thy truth, thy word is truth. Set them apart. What does
God use in our salvation? In making known to us His way
of grace. He uses His Word. That's why
we make much of the Word of God. It's the reason we read the Word
of God. It's the reason we study the Word of God. We don't have
some other kind of book that we bring up here. We open the
Scriptures. Because we know if God is going
to speak to us by His Spirit concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
this is the book that He will use. These are the sanctified people. And then, these are a united
people. He says in verses 20 and 21,
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word, that they all may be one as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And then
these are a people who are beloved of God. Notice what he says in
verse 23. I in them, thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." Can you get a hold
of that? I tell you, we would go away
from here rejoicing tonight if we could just comprehend that
a little bit, just to a degree. that as God the Father loved
the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, who is with Him from the
beginning. The Savior says, when He made
the hills and the mountains, I was with Him. I was with Him. And as the Father delighted in,
loved His only begotten Son, that's the way He loves us. No
wonder He said to Jeremiah, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore in loving kindness have I drawn thee. These are the people that He
is praying for. Those that the Father gave Him.
You know, when it comes to the doctrine of God's electing grace,
This is a truth that's very dear to the heart of the Lord. You
remember, and I'm sure you do, in Exodus chapter 33, Moses,
he made several requests of the Lord, and we'll go into all of
those requests at another time, but he said, he said, Lord, show
me your glory. God said, I'll cause all my goodness
to pass before you. And I'll be gracious to whom
I'll be gracious. I'll be merciful to whom I'll
be merciful. This is His glory. You say, Jim,
why do you think the Bible keeps on speaking about the elect of
God, the chosen of God? This is His glory. Would you glory in the Lord?
Would you glorify the Lord? Would you magnify the Lord in
your heart, in your speech? Speak of His electing grace.
This is the very origin of our salvation. This is where it all
began. Ashamed of this doctrine? Never! Oh no! This is where we trace
back all of our salvation to God's electing grace. in Christ
Jesus. It's the truth that was very
dear to the heart of God. In our Lord's very first message
in Galilee, He talked to them about God's sovereign grace.
And they were ready to kill Him. But that's okay. Do they want
to kill Him? That's their business. But for
those of us who love sovereign grace, we delight in this message
because we understand we wouldn't love the Lord, we wouldn't believe
the Gospel, we wouldn't have any interest in the things of
God unless the Lord had from the beginning chosen us into
salvation. Do you remember when the 70 came
back rejoicing and they were so happy, the Lord gave them
power to cast out demons and they were just celebrating. Even
the evil spirits are subject to us. The Lord said, well, I
saw Satan falling from the sky like lightning, but in this don't
rejoice, but rather rejoice in this, your names are written
down in heaven. Can you rejoice in it? Boy, I
do. My name is written down in the Lamb's Book of Life, and
God wrote it. God wrote it in indelible ink,
never to be erased out of the Lamb's Book of Life. Why do you
make so much of God's electing grace? Because it's a truth that's
very dear to the heart of our God. And then it's a truth that's
dear to the heart of the Lord's people. And I'll tell you this, it's
a truth that is the sinner's friend. It is the sinner's friend. It's not the enemy of the sinner.
It's the friend of the sinner. If the Lord, here you sat tonight,
thinking about the things of God, focusing in upon Christ
the Savior, You wouldn't be here if He didn't choose you unto
salvation. No. This is your friend. This is a dear friend. God's
electing grace. So the Savior then, in this passage
of Scripture, He keeps on saying, I have. And let me get them to
you very quickly. Look at verse four. Here's the
first one. He says this to the Father, and I love the fact that
He says, I have. It's just like through the Bible,
don't you love when the Lord says, I will, I shall, I have. And there are nine times in this
prayer that He mentions the fact of what He has done. I have done
this. Not, I desired to do it, or I
wanted to do it, or I tried to do it, or I put forth an effort
to do it, but he says, I have done these things. I'll give
them to you quickly. Number one, he says in verse
four, I have glorified thee on this earth. I have glorified
thee on the earth. What's the chief end of man?
What was man made for? To glorify God. But the first
man failed. He slipped and fell into sin
and all of us fell in Him. But God sent another man who
upheld the integrity of His law and lived a life of obedience.
And He says, I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have. Not I wanted to. Not I tried
to. But I have glorified Thee. on
the earth. Remember he said in John 12,
28, Father glorify thy name. There came a voice from heaven
saying, I both glorified it and will glorify it again. When Joseph and Mary missed him
and he was 12 years of age, he was back in Jerusalem talking
with the doctors and the lawyers, he said, wished ye not that I
must be about my father's business. He's glorifying God. That's what
he's doing. I've glorified thee on the earth.
And then secondly, he says, In the same verse, I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. And this is the work that
he frequently mentioned, the work of redeeming his people,
the work of saving those who are the objects of God's everlasting
grace and love. You know, when we come down to
the end of life, if we are conscious and can think pretty clearly,
There'll be some things we wish that we'd have finished. Some
things we wish we'd have done, but didn't get around to it.
But our Lord didn't have any regrets. He said, I finished
the work that you gave me to do. What is that work that God
gave Him to do? To bring in for all of His people
an everlasting righteousness. The work that he finished, John
says, he was manifested to put away sin. That's the work he
came to do. And he did it to the Father's
satisfaction as evidenced by the fact that he was raised from
the dead and seated at the Father's right hand. Thirdly, he says in verse 6,
I manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out
of the world. Our Lord Jesus, He is the priest
to intercede for His people, to bless His people. He is the
priest who offered the sacrifice for His people, the sacrifice
being the sacrifice of Himself. But He's also that perfect prophet
who teaches and instructs His people. He's the revelation of
the Father. He makes the Father known. He
reveals the Father. He teaches. He teaches us. We're not without a teacher.
I know God uses men, and we're thankful that He does. But there
is a greater teacher than men, and that's the Lord Himself.
And I was talking to somebody just the other day about this.
Men can teach. God does use men. And they teach
us. But if we only grasp something
or we only believe something because we heard it from the
lips of a man, that's not too good. Because another man can
come along and be a more persuasive teacher and convince us of something
else. But if God the Spirit teaches
us, and that's what we want, We want God to write His Word
upon our hearts. If He teaches us, He's an excellent
teacher. And we can't be persuaded otherwise. He says, I manifested thy name
unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. You know
what He teaches us? Salvations of the Lord. And then
notice this in verse 12. He says, while I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me, I have kept. I have kept. Preserved. Has he ever lost any of his sheep? The Lord gave Him sheep before
the world began. The Lord designated these are
the sheep. Everybody else, the goats. The
sheep were entrusted to the Great Shepherd, to the Good Shepherd,
to the Chief Shepherd, to the Seeking Shepherd, to the Nourishing
Shepherd. Has He ever lost one of His sheep? The answer is no. No. He keeps us. He says, my sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give
unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. Do you
fear that you will perish? You who believe on Christ, you
who look to his bloody death, you who find hope only in the
blessed son of God, Do you fear that at last you might slip and
fall and perish in your sins? You need not be concerned about
that. He keeps us. He keeps us. He keeps us all the way through
this life. There's divine preservation. Those are well kept whom the
Lord Jesus keeps. And then he says in verse 14,
I've given them thy word. He's speaking here of the whole
revelation of God, the whole truth of God. I have given them
thy word. Listen, this body of truth, the
Lord has given it to us. Is this for his children? It's
not for the world. It's not for people who don't
love him. This is a love letter, a grace
letter written to his beloved ones. I have given them thy word. It's yours. Right from the heart
of God to your heart. And then he says in verse 18,
as thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent
them. I have sent them into the world.
He sends us into the world. Wouldn't it be nice? I've had
people say this to me before. Wouldn't it be nice to be in
a Bible conference atmosphere all the time? But how's the gospel
going to go out into the world? How are you to be a witness to
your neighbor? To your loved ones who don't
know Christ? He says, I've sent them, I've
given them the Word, and I've sent them into the world. I've
sent them out. We're not of the world, but we're in the world, because
we've got the message that folks in this world need to hear. And
there are some of the Lord's people who've never heard the
Word yet, but they will. They'll hear it from us. And then he says in verse 22,
the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them. This is the
glory of the gospel. But this is also the glory that
awaits us. He says there in Romans chapter
eight, he's glorified us already in his eternal purpose, we're
glorified. David said the Lord will give
grace and glory. He never gives grace without
following it up with glory. And glory is always preceded
by grace. He never gives one without the
other. And we're said to be vessels
of mercy prepared aforehand unto glory. And then he says this in verse
25. I have known thee. O righteous father, the world
hath not known thee, but I have known thee. I have known thee. There are those who say of our
Lord Jesus that when he came into this world, he didn't know
exactly what was going on. That's a bunch of foolishness.
He knew God. He knew the purpose of God. He
knew the reason for which He was sent into this world, to
save the people of God's choice. And He says, I have known thee. He knows the very mind and purpose
and nature of God. He knows the perfection of God,
the glory of God, the secret thoughts of God. He knows the
designs of God. He knows the covenant of God.
He knows the promises of God. He knows the blessings of God.
He knows the love of God, the grace of God, the goodwill of
God toward His people. He knows the redemptive will
of God. And the Lord's people are taught
that Christ was sent by the Father on a mission of mercy. And then
finally, he says, I have declared unto them thy name, the last
verse of the prayer. And we'll declare it. I have
declared unto them thy name, and I will declare it. He reveals
the Father to us. When He says, I have declared
unto them thy name. What does that mean? The name
of the Lord. That indicates His perfection.
That indicates who He is. His attributes. And the Savior
says, I have declared unto them. Who are the them? Those that
the Father gave Him. And He says, I have declared
unto them thy name. And then He says, and I will
declare it. And by His Spirit, He's still
declaring to us the Father. In fact, He is the revelation
of the Father to us. And you can't know the Father
apart from Him. He even said this to Philip.
Philip, you know, back in John 14, he said, if you'll show us
the Father, we'll be satisfied. Ah, Philip, he said. I haven't
been with you so long, and you don't know, you don't understand,
you don't perceive. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. The I-haves of our intercessor. Oh, how precious is the prayer
of our Savior, and how exceedingly precious is that one who is our
antecessor. Let's sing a closing song. If
you would, turn the